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Wednesday, March 29, 2017

UCLA leads men's college basketball short corn

The traveling championship in college basketball that only covers the regular season, which we may call the "short" Ear of Corn, now belongs to UCLA, and for the third time. As the 2016-17 season ended, UCLA also had more wins in this championship than anyone else.

It's nothing to be compared with the Wooden days, perhaps, but the men's basketball team at UCLA nabbed its third regular-season traveling championship in February and now holds the title through the off season.

The Bruins also top the rest with 15 wins in this Ear of Corn through two seasons. Next in line is North Carolina, which notched all of its 12 wins during a winning streak last season. Oregon has won eight of these games, all this season. Next up are Duke, Kentucky and Virginia Tech, each with five.

Virginia Tech began the season with the championship and held it for four games before a 68-65 loss to Texas A&M in Fullerton on Nov. 25. Two days later, UCLA beat A&M, 74-67, at the Honda Center.

The Bruins held on for six more games before losing, 89-87, at Oregon, on Dec. 28. But the Bruins at least held it into the Pac-12 season, meaning they would have some chance of regaining the championship.

Following Oregon's run, the title went through Colorado, California and Arizona before the Bruins regained the championship with a 77-72 win against the Wildcats at Pauley Pavilion on Feb. 25.

UCLA closed out its regular season with home court wins against Washington and Washington State to maintain the title until at least next November.

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Bill Peterson is an award winning journalist who has covered sports around the country for more than 30 years, including Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League and major collegiate sports for daily newspapers and major wire services. His longest stint was with The Cincinnati Post from 1986-1998. He also has worked at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and the Miami Herald. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Sporting News and Baseball America, among other publications. He later produced successful public interest newspapers and websites in the Austin/San Antonio area. Peterson is a lifetime member of the Baseball Writers Association of America, formerly with a vote for the Hall of Fame. He can be contacted by email at bill@labigleagues.com.